Royal Rumble 2000
January 23rd from Madison Square Garden , New York.
Back Ground:
The main feud going into the event was between Triple H and Mick Foley. The McMahon-Helmsley Faction began in late 1999, where Triple H and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley had control over the WWF, and scheduling unreasonable matches for the wrestlers.Foley objected to this, and the faction attacked several times before finally firing him. On the January 3 edition of Raw is War, Triple H won the WWF Championship, and mocked Foley with an impersonator. On the January 10 edition of Raw is War, The Rock brought every superstar to the ring, demanding that Foley be reinstated or the entire roster would walk out. Foley was reinstated, and he requested a Street Fight for the WWF Championship at Royal Rumble. Foley and Triple H fought in a 4-on-4 tag team match later that night. Triple H pinned Foley after using the ring bell, and delivering two Pedigrees. After the match, Foley took off his mask, and attacked Triple H.On the January 13 edition of SmackDown!, Foley returned to his Cactus Jack persona (with a more violent and psychotic character) by taking off his Mankind attire to reveal his Cactus Jack attire.
The Event:
The show starts with a black and white video package on the feud between Triple H and Foley, going back and forth on what each other has done to other people and themselves. Stating that Foley has been in numerous different hardcore matches with images of Foley putting people through tables, being wrapped in barbed wire and chucked in explosives. The video turns to colour with Foley saying there will be no remorse. A good solid video package for the Street Fight later on tonight. No doubt it will be violent.
Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler are the commentators for tonight's event which were are informed is sold out!
Match 1:
Kurt Angle vs. Mystery opponent
Kurt comes out to massive boos, he cuts a good promo and gets cheap heat by putting down the Knicks. The commentators try to get over that Angle is undefeated as Angle is patronizing his opponent. In what has to be the worst kept secret in wrestling (everybody knew who was coming.) Tazz is announced and comes out to a massive pop as he is a native New Yorker.
Tazz starts off well back dropping Angle over the top rope until Angle suplex’s Tazz onto the concrete. Tazz then hits an impressive belly to belly suplex from the middle rope. Tazz counters a Olympic slam attempt and hits a trio of suplex’s, a German suplex, T-bone suplex and a head arm suplex. Tazz then gets a Tazzmission on Angle, with Angle passing out Tazz gets the win breaking Angle’s undefeated streak.
Winner: Tazz
Match Time: 3:16
Overall a good opener to get the crowd hot, It could have been longer but it made Tazz looked strong defeating Angle in such a way.
Rating: 5/10
Next a backstage segment with a very young looking Michael Cole interviewing The Hardyz and Terri Runnels. They talk about how the match came about with The Dudleyz, with both teams putting each other through tables.Jeff, Matt and Terri are awful in this interview. Jeff has clearly not learnt anything about promos in 10 years.
Match 2:
Dudley Boyz vs. Hardy Boyz in a Tables Match.
Howard Finkel announces this match as the first ever Tag Team Tables Match. Yet again the people of New York get bashed this time by Bubba Ray saying they are all ass-backwards. Teddy Long is the referee in this match before being Smackdown GM.
After an unprotected chair shot to the head of Bubba Ray, Jeff Hardy runs along the barrier towards Bubba who’s on a table but Bubba gets up and slams the table in Hardy’s face. The Hardy’s bring out a ladder making it unofficially the first TLC match ever. Bubba gets put through a table on the outside by Matt doing a leg drop from a ladder and Jeff hit a splash on him.The Hardy’s set Devon up on a table but he moves as Matt does a leg drop through the table, As Devon moves Jeff does a suicide dive but Devon moves again out the way of another table which Jeff goes through. He looked like he killed himself. The Dudleyz set up a table in the ring with the table balanced on the steps, they then put Matt through the table with a top rope powerbomb. The score is 1-1 as they did not allow Matt and Jeff putting themselves through tables. They fight out into the crowd and the Dudleyz start stacking tables underneath a balcony. Matt is put onto the two tables and Bubba goes to the top of the balcony looking for a splash, but Jeff low-blows Bubba then hits two unprotected chair shots sending Bubba crashing through the stacked tables. Matt then grabs another table and sets this up below the balcony. Devon is put onto the table and Jeff hits a crazy Swanton Bomb through the table making the Hardy Boyz the winners.
Winners: Hardy Boyz
Match Time: 10:18
A great match with lots of spots to keep the crowd interested. Jeff’s dive has been repeated over and over since this event and it is still impressive. Bubba took 3 chair shots to the head in this match and each time it made me ill knowing what it does to an athlete.
Rating: 9/10
Miss Rumble Swimsuit Contest:
The best thing about this segment was Jerry Lawlers joke to Howard Finkel saying “these girls are not your type, they’re not inflatable.” Why they had to bring out WWE legends Sgt Slaughter, Classy Freddie Blassie, Tony Garea and the Fabulous Moolah for this is beyond me. What must they have said to get them to agree to this?
The contestants were Ivory, Terri, Jacqueline, B.B (who?), Luna and The Kat. The girls start taking their clots off and Jerry Lawler is beside himself, jumping up and down, whooping and generally making sexist remarks. J.R is often heard on commentary coughing, chuckling and mmmming at the goings on. Basically everyone takes their clothes off and then Mae Young comes out and announces she is entering the contest, Mae Young gets naked and shows her breasts, in doing so makes me vomit. The judges announce Mae Young as the winner. Can I have 10mins of my life back now! How does this segment get longer than Tazz and Angle?
Match 3:
So Jericho and Chyna are the co-holders of the Intercontinental championship because of a double pin fall that happened on Smackdown. Chyna’s theme songs says “Don’t treat me like a woman and don’t treat me like a man” which I found amusing. Jericho comes out doing his best Y2J face promo, I like him better as a heel.
There is lots of slapping going on to start this match with everyone getting involved, the commentators are still talking about Mae Young. Jericho gets an early Walls of Jericho attempt on Holly but Chyna breaks it up. Jericho then hits a springboard splash to Holly on the outside. Holly grabs a steel chair on the outside but Chyna dropkicks the chair into his face. Back in the ring Chyna does a top rope splash to Holly but Jericho does a splash onto both of them. The crowd were dead for quite a lot of this match.
Chyna hits a low-blow on Jericho then hits Holly with a Pedigree for a 2 count. Holly gets Chyna up on his shoulders but Jericho does a cross body off the top rope for a legion of doom style move. Chyna hits a superplex on Holly which he no sells and tries to pin Chyna. Chyna grabs a steel chair and hits Holly with it, she then gets Holly into a Boston crab but Jericho hits a face buster on her then the Lionsault for the win.
Winner and Undisputed champion: Chris Jericho
Match Time: 7:30
Not a great match and not very entertaining. There were a few good spots mainly by Jericho. The crowd were not really into it but loved Jericho.
Rating: 5/10
Next we see Michael Cole interviewing The Rock. He gets a massive reaction and chants of Rocky! He does his usual promo catchphrases and says he is worried about 2 people in the Rumble match. Crash Holly and Headbanger Mosh. I found this great! He makes Michael Cole look a tool when he mentions the Big Show. The Rock then tears into the Big Show and does a great promo. There’s know one as good as The Rock at promos and getting the crowd pumped.
Match 4:
Acolytes vs. New Age Outlaws (c) for the World Tag Team Championship.
The Acolytes are number 1 contenders by winning a battle royal on Raw. The Outlaws come out first and they do their usual promo in the ring which the crowd loves. The Acolytes come running out for their entrance and attack the outlaws who were on the outside.
Inside the Acolytes dominate until the Road Dogg does his jive punches only to be pulled down when attempting his shaky knee drop. All four men then come in the ring, Bradshaw hits a Clothesline From Hell on Billy Gunn. There’s a ref bump as Bradshaw hits both Billy Gunn and the Referee. X- Pac then comes out and hits a spin kick on Bradshaw but gets knocked out of the ring by Faarooq, this leads to Road Dogg knocking Faarooq out of the ring and Billy Gunn hitting the Fame Asser on Bradshaw to retain the titles.
Winners: New Age Outlaws
Match Time: 2:35
Another very short match on this PPV. Maybe they were worried about the time they will have for the Main event and Rumble match. Nothing good happened in this match, it just seemed to be crammed in there for the sake of it.
Rating: 1/10
Match 5:
Before the match a great video of how this feud (which I spoke about at the top of this review) came about is shown. Cactus Jack is out first to a great crowd reaction. Triple H then comes out with Stephanie but she is sent back to the locker room by Triple H. J.R talks about when Mick Foley once hitch-hiked to Madison Square Garden from Long Island to see the WWF and how much it would mean for him to win.
Cactus Jack punches the crap out of Triple H for the first few minutes of the match. They fight to the outside where Jack throws Triple H into the ring steps then the timekeepers table. Triple H grabs the ring bell and hits Jack in the head. Triple H then takes a chair in the ring and hit a sick chair shot to Jack’s head. It was noted that at the Royal Rumble last year Mick Foley took numerous chair shots (13 I think). Jack gets Triple H on the mat and does a leg drop on a chair on Triple H’s head.
They fight to the floor and Triple H gets back dropped into the crowd. They fight through the crowd and get to the entrance-way where Jack suplex’s Triple H onto some wooden pallets then hit him with a trash can. Triple H has blood coming from his calf from the suplex on the pallets. Jack gets back-suplexed onto a trash can. Jack goes under the ring and grabs a barbed wire bat but Triple H gives him a low blow and hits Jack with the bat 4 times! The referee took the bat away and gave it to the Spanish announcers, but Jack goes over to the Spanish announce table demanding for the bat and punches an announcer before getting the bat back.
Triple H runs at Jack when he gets back in the ring but Jack moves out of the way and Triple H runs into the referee. Jack hits Triple H in the head with the bat twice which busts open Triple H, then repeatedly uses the bat on Triple H’s head and even scrapes it on his head. Now Triple H’s face is covered in blood. Jack puts Triple H on the announce table to put him through it but Triple H reverses the move and back body drop’s Jack through the table, but the table didn’t break properly. Jack runs at Triple H but gets hip-tossed into the steel steps which looked like it really hurt Jack’s leg. He then gets thrown into the steps again knee first. I'm surprised he can still walk after this!
Back in the ring Triple H keeps attacking Jack’s leg with the barbed wire bat. Triple H grabs handcuffs which were just laying around and handcuffs Jack. Triple H breaks a steel chair by hitting Cactus Jack numerous times with it. Cactus is then on his knees begging to be hit again but The Rock comes out and hits Triple H with a chair. A cop then comes out and unlocks Jack’s handcuffs. Jack hits a piledriver on Triple H onto the Spanish announce table but the table does not break and I'm sure Triple H gets knocked out by this. Jack grabs a bag of thumb tacks from under the ring and pours them over the mat. Stephanie comes out looks genuinely worried about Triple H. Jack gets back-dropped onto the tacks, then gets hit with a Pedigree but he kicks out and the crowd goes nuts. Triple H then hits another Pedigree on Jack, this time onto the tacks and pinned Jack for the win. This looked so sick, Jack went face first into the tacks and has them sticking in his head.
Winner and still WWF Champion:Triple H Match Time: 26:51
This was a great match and had great build up and went for nearly half hour.I'm not the biggest fan of Triple H but this match made him huge. Triple H’s leg got cut within the first 5mins and had to soldier on. This was a huge win for Triple H as Cactus Jack was a tough opponent. I forgot that the Rumble was on after this which has a tough act to follow.
Rating: 10/10
Next they go to WWF New York with the debut of Jonathan Coachman, he interviews Linda McMahon about the McMahon-Helmsley faction. Nothing really interesting here.
Before the Rumble match they show a video of Shawn Michaels in the 1995 Royal Rumble when he got chucked out by The British Bulldog but only one foot touched the ground and Shawn Michaels came back in and threw the Bulldog over for the win. They stated heavily BOTH FEET MUST TOUCH THE FLOOR.
The Main Event:
The Royal Rumble Match
D-Lo Brown drew number 1 and Grandmaster Sexay drew number 2. Mosh came out number 3 and was wearing a pair of tit cones like Madonna. Kaientai who weren’t even in the Rumble did a run in but got chucked out straight away. Christian was out 4th,
Rikishi was 5th and eliminated Mosh then Christian and hit a Rikishi Driver on D-Lo then threw him out. Scotty 2 Hotty was 6th and all 3 members of 2 Cool danced in the ring until Rikishi chucked both Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty over and cotinued to dance. The amount of times Jerry Lawler has said Mae Young’s name is scary. 7th is Steve Blackman but gets chucked out after another Rikishi Driver. The commentators were asking who could get Rikishi over the top rope and guess who’s out next… Viscera, but Rikishi chucks Viscera out! Big Boss Man is 9th but does not get into the ring. Test is 10th and gets a huge cheer and chucks the Big Boss Man into the ring.
The British Bulldog is 11th, lots of jokes about Rikishi’s ass. Gangrel is 12th, Kaientai comes out again but both get chucked over the top rope. (This is where Taka hits his face on the floor and breaks his cheekbone which looked nasty and got a thousand replays as Jerry Lawler kept asking to see it.) Edge is out next to a big cheer from the women in the crowd. Bob Backlund is a surprise entrant at 14th, all 6 men eliminate Rikishi over the top rope to massive boo’s from the crowd. Number 15 is Chris Jericho and eliminates Bob Backland who jumps over the barrier and walks through the crowd to the back. 16th is Crash Holly, 17th is Chyna who is appearing in her second rumble after making history in 1999 for being the first woman to enter a Rumble. She goes straight for Jericho and suplex’s him over the top rope to the floor from the apron, but Big Boss Man hits Chyna off the apron to eliminate her. Faarooq is next but as he gets in the ring The Mean Street Posse run in and and attack Faarooq and The Big Boss Man throws him over. 19th is Road Dogg, 20th is Al Snow, Road Dogg eliminates The British Bulldog then Road Dogg proceeds to hug the bottom rope for the next 5 minutes.
Val Venis is 21st and Funaki from Kaientai runs in again, without Taka who has been taken to the hospital and gets thrown over again. Prince Albert is 22nd , Edge gets back-dropped over the rope by Val Venis. Hardcore Holly comes out 23rd. The Rock is 24th and comes out to a massive pop and eliminates The Big Boss man straight away. The inventive name that is Mr Ass is 25th, The Rock eliminates Crash Holly, Road Dogg is hugging the bottom rope still. The Big Show is 26th and goes crazy by eliminating Test and Gangrel then headbutts almost everyone in the ring. Bradshaw is 27th and The Mean Street Posse come out again and attack Bradshaw and the Road Dogg eliminates Bradshaw. Kane is 28th and eliminates Val Venis. The Godfather and his Ho’s come out 29th, Kane Eliminates Prince Albert, Funaki comes out again but gets chucked out by Al Snow. X-Pac has the coveted number 30 spot.
Al Snow eliminates Hardcore Holly, Big Show eliminates The Godfather. The Rock eliminates Al Snow and as Road Dogg is shouting at Al Snow Mr Ass eliminates his tag partner but Kane eliminates Mr Ass straight after. They pull Kane out under the bottom rope and fight with him on the outside. The Rock chucks X-pac over the top rope who does a sommersault to the floor but gets back in the ring as the referees didn’t see as they were busy with Kane and The New Age Outlaws. Kane hits an enziguiri on Big Show which I thought was quite athletic of him but X-pac spin kicks Kane over the top rope. Big Show Press Slams X-Pac over the top rope to the floor leaving The Rock and The Big Show. The Rock hits a Peoples Elbow then Big Show recovers and hits a Choke slam on The Rock. Big Shows gets The Rock on his shoulders and runs to the rope to chuck him out but the momentum has The Big Show going to the floor as The Rock holds on to the rope for the win.
The Rock then cuts a promo saying he is going to Wrestlemania but The Big Show runs in and chucks The Rock over the top rope to chants of “Asshole” from the crowd.
Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations
A new entrant came out approximately every 90 secondsDraw  | Entrant | Order | Eliminated by | Time |
1 | 3 | Rikishi | ||
2 | 4 | Rikishi | ||
3 | 1 | Rikishi | ||
4 | 2 | Rikishi | ||
5 | 8 | Big Boss Man, Test, British Bulldog, Gangrel, Edge and Bob Backlund | ||
6 | 5 | Rikishi | ||
7 | 6 | Rikishi | 0:44 | |
8 | 7 | Rikishi | ||
9 | 15 | The Rock | ||
10 | 17 | The Big Show | 26:17 | |
11 | 13 | Road Dogg | ||
12 | 18 | Big Show | ||
13 | 14 | Al Snow and Val Venis | ||
14 | 9 | Chris Jericho | ||
15 | 10 | Chyna | ||
16 | 16 | The Rock | ||
17 | 11 | Big Boss Man | 0:37 | |
18 | 12 | Big Boss Man | 0:18 | |
19 | 25 | Billy Gunn | ||
20 | 24 | The Rock | ||
21 | 20 | Kane | ||
22 | 21 | Kane | ||
23 | 22 | Al Snow | ||
24 | Winner | |||
25 | 26 | Kane | ||
26 | 29 | The Rock | ||
27 | 19 | Road Dogg and Billy Gunn | 0:25 | |
28 | 27 | X-Pac | ||
29 | The Godfather | 23 | Big Show | |
30 | 28 | Big Show |
Winner: The Rock
Match Time: 51:49 An OK Rumble, what I noticed was the lack of star power. It just seemed like a bunch of jobbers and included wrestlers from the matches prior. The only people that could have won this match when you look at this list is The Rock, Big Show and Kane. The run ins from Kaientai and Mean Street Posse was weird but I guess added a comedic factor. Rating: 7/10
Rumble Facts:
The entrant that stayed in the longest was Test at 26:17, The entrant that stayed in the shortest time was Faarooq at 18 seconds. Rikishi eliminated the most people which was 7.
PPV Rating:
Two stand out matches between The Dudley Boyz vs Hardy Boyz, and Triple H vs Cactus Jack. The rest was mediocre with a few short matches and a pointless Miss Rumble contest.
Rating: 7/10
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